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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Most preppers are familiar with the adage, "Store what you eat". The idea being, don't store stuff you hate just because it's cheap or plentiful.

For instance, I know with metaphysical certainty that beets and sweet potatoes were put on this earth for no reason other than to test my gag reflex. They are horrible, puke-inducing produce. I'd never even consider putting some of them up in storage.

Chicken, on the other hand, is something I really like. I've never met a chicken I didn't love. As such, I've home canned TONS of chicken. Mostly breast meat, with a smattering of thigh meat.

Here's the conundrum: I love chicken breast, but after canning, it's like commercially canned tuna - flaky. I love chicken breast, and I like it in this style, but not ONLY in this style. No other storage format (freezing, dehydrating, etc.) is as shelf stable.

Beef is the same way, but I've found a way around it: I grind and brown it first, THEN can it, and the texture is just like regular old ground burger. I can it with my Italian sausage flavorings, and it absolutely rocks.

Has anyone ever ground up chicken breast, cooked it THEN canned it? If so, how was it? In my mind's eye, it won't keep the "bouncy" structure of a ground meat - it will just be another pint of flaky breast meat.

Looks like I've got another test ahead of me...
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Speaking of beef, I heard a story on TV about how beef prices are set to spike. Something about how we've got fewer heads of beef than we had in the 1970's, and not enough cows to breed more.

Sounds like a marketing ploy, or poor planning, to me.

I don't eat a lot of beef - mostly pork and chicken - but I like a big ol' thick steak now and again.

I do believe I'll be picking up some beef for the freezer, and some freeze-dried cans of beef for the larder.
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I just don't get this - leaving money on the table. And in these cases, I mean that literally.

With my gun classes, if you can't make the class and you notify me of this less than a week before the class, I provide you with a credit that can be used for any future class (if you call me a week or more before the class, you can get your money fully refunded if you want). Right now, I have 6 students that have bought and paid for my Introductory Pistol class - at $99 a pop - that haven't reschduled. One of these is 7 months old!

In our PM shop, we pay past customers who refer us new customers, a 5% bonus. We look at this as advertising expense, and doesn't come out of the proceeds of their friend! Anyways, we must be over $1000 in unpaid referral fees.

We call them immediately to thank them and to come down and get their free cash. We do a follow-up call a week later to touch bases again. Nuthin'.

They must be tripping on all of those green shoots as they're running to the store...
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A screamin' JAW (Just Add Water) recipe....

This was inspired by a post I saw over at Riverwalker's Stealth Survival blog. The topic was, Comfort Food. As he noted, food has a way of settling you down - grounding you. Those food favorites have a way of making a crappy day not quite so bad. In a survival situation, they could be crucial to your mental (and physical) health.

One of my first thoughts was mashed potatoes. Yeah, boy - I luvs me some spuds!

I keep the majority of my JAW packets in my car. They're part of my stuck-out-in-nowhere-and-I'm-going-to-be-here-for-a-while supplies. They take up a bit too much room to be included in my Get Home Bag, but are perfect if I've got to hunker down for a while. Great for camping trips as well.

My idea was for a bacon, cheese and garlic mashed potatoes recipe. I picked up a bag of bacon bits (actually, Textured Vegetable Protein - TVP), and some cheese powder from the bulk section at my market. I already had plenty of potato buds and dehydrated garlic (not powder, but the minced bits).

The first crack at it was OK, but didn't curl my toes. It would be good in a bad situation, but not Top Shelf. The second try was absolutely awesome! I increased the garlic and cheese amounts (2x and 3x, respectively).

Mix it all together, keeping it covered (or sealed in a Foodsaver bag) for 5 minutes, then devour. The reason there's no picture is because I ate it all. Seriously, this stuff rocks.

One tip - more water is better than less water. I did the first recipe with a cup of water (which was a little over what was supposedly needed) and it was still a bit too stiff and almost sticky. Added the extra water, and it was creamy smooth.

Enough for 2 side dishes or one meal.

The stats (total) -

Cal - 285
Fat - 3.5g
Carbs - 51g
Protein - 14g

As Campbell's says, "Mmm, mmm, good...."
---Copyright 2012 Bison Risk Management Associates. All rights reserved. Please note that in addition to owning Bison Risk Management, Chief Instructor is also a partner in a precious metals business. You are encouraged to repost this information so long as it is credited to Bison Risk Management Associates. www.BisonRMA.com

Monday, February 27, 2012

Central banks also hiked their purchases from 77 metric tons in 2010 to 440 metric tons in 2011 as worries about a second global recession grew.

Holy crap! Nearly a six-fold increase in gold purchases by the equivalent of the Federal Reserve in other countries.

I guess they didn't get Uncle Ben's memo. Hmm.
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My only concern right now with gold (and silver) is the short-term. When Greece crashes - and potentially the euro some time thereafter - and I think it will - the dollar is going to spike, pushing down the price of PMs. Perhaps the market has already "priced" this eventuality into gold, I don't really know.

According to this article on ZeroHedge (also poached from Survivalblog), the Greek-TEOTWAWKI (a "disorderly default") will be some time around March 20th.

Now, I'm always a bit leery when someone predicts a date for something to happen, but the prediction comes from Credit Suisse, and not some blogger like me. So, accurate or not, it has the potential to affect the market. I buy gold and silver every month, but I may back off a little bit coming up to mid-March to see how things shake out.

My long-term view remains unchanged: Until the federal government states it will no longer "print" dollars and it will no longer run a deficit, I'll buy precious metals. Neither of those is going to happen in the foreseeable future, regardless of who's in the White House.
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Take the broken Angel Hair pasta and put it into a pan over medium heat, sprayed with Pam or some other cooking spray. Continually stir the pasta until it is dark brown. Remove from the heat and place in a bowl immediately, as the pasta will continue to brown even in a pan that's off the heat.

Combine remaining ingredients, and cover for 10 minutes. Makes a side dish for two, or a meal for one.

Eat.

If, like me, you're putting this in Foodsaver bags, make the bag bigger than normal, as it can be used to hold the food while it's re-hydrating. Just fold over the open end and clamp/hold shut.

If you have access to butter, add a tablespoon or two, and it tastes much more like the real thing. Be sure you're using Angel Hair or another VERY thin pasta, as thicker types like spaghetti retain their crunchiness.

Stats (total):

Calories: 610
Protein: 17g
Carbs: 131g
Fat: 1g
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Part of the reason posting has been light the past week is because of crap like this. I see very, very disturbing "signs" and it seem no one gives a damn. Unmanned police drones. Police check points. Police armored personnel carriers. All manned by cops attired as soldiers.

I really am starting to hate this, and it worries me quite a bit: The overview you read on the TV listing for every damned "real life" cop show on TV is full of "elite" cops. I swear to God, I just saw one that was about an elite squad of cops that were tasked with catching..... speeders. What's next? "Elite" meter maids?

I was just watching a show by John Stossel called, "Illegal Everything" (find this and watch it). One of the sections was about citizens filming cops doing their job - and getting arrested for the effort. In each incident, the citizen was arrested for something like, "interfering with government function" or some horseshit like that.

Each was the epitome of trumped up charges, and in each incident, not a single cop was disciplined or fired. WTF?

Why's it worry me? Because more and more cops start believing the TV propaganda, that they are in fact, elites - and not our servants. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, too many citizens - their masters - are believing the propaganda as well.

Sheeple
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In the Stossel show, they also had a section on grotesque government abuses of power. One family had their land arbitrarily designated as a wet lands. The state hadn't cleared some drainage ditch, and the water had backed up. The people - with the blessing of the state - cleared the ditch. The feds came in and sued them.

The landowners won the law suit, but the feds didn't give a damn, and fined them $37,000 a day, effectively bankrupting them.

How can this happen in America?

I swear to God, I would not have lost my home and land by just rolling over.

---Copyright 2012 Bison Risk Management Associates. All rights reserved. Please note that in addition to owning Bison Risk Management, Chief Instructor is also a partner in a precious metals business. You are encouraged to repost this information so long as it is credited to Bison Risk Management Associates. www.BisonRMA.com

Monday, February 20, 2012

You may have heard that Judge Andrew Napalitano got canned from his show, Freedom Watch, on Fox Business. The supposed reason is his support of Ron Paul. All that silly "constitutional" talk, and such.

The judge wasn't toeing the company line of "conservative" - talk about small government, low taxes. The judge - a libertarian or constitutionalist - also pushed for the social freedoms required for a truly free society. The ability to do as you wish as long as those actions don't infringe on the rights of another.

What the judge would point out is that, other than rhetoric, there isn't a wit of difference between Republicans and Democrats, and that didn't sit well with Fox management.

The judge put himself up on the ridge line, and took a head shot for his troubles.

I happened to be watching his last show, and was quite impressed with his professionalism during what had to be a very uncomfortable show. Like always, he ended the show with his, The Plain Truth, segment.

He hit one out of the park -

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I was originally going to do a spittle-covered rant about how Fox is a flaming pile of dog feces for silencing one of the few truly Constitutional thinkers on all of TV. Boycotts, letter writing, blah, blah, blah.

Then I realized most folks don't give a shit. That indifference - ironically - was part of the Judge's last show. Our country fought the most powerful monarchy ever built, and with the support of only 1/3 of the people, we prevailed.

Nowadays, I don't think we've even got that large a part of our society that cares. Bread and Circuses. With 50% on some sort of government payment, and most of the rest too self-absorbed in their own lives or distracted by the latest singer cum crack head to care, I think the Monarchy wins this time around.
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On the semi-prepping front, I've got two 5-gallon batches of mead a-brewin'. I cut a deal with a local hive owner where we're splitting the results. I provide the brewing expertise, and he provided the honey.

One batch is going to be a dry mead (not overly sweet) and the other is something called a melomel - a mead with fruit. Raspberry, in this case.

I had a bit of a problem with the melomel. I lost the entire batch.

I was transferring (racking) the mead from a glass carboy and I slipped. The carboy fairly exploded and my kitchen floor was covered with 5 gallons of honey/raspberry wine. I had to start all over with that batch - meaning I had to dig 15 pounds of honey out of my stores. Not happy.

Learn from my mistake - when brewing, use plastic. Always. Aside from putting yourself at risk of serious injury, the potential for loss goes up exponentially.

A few years ago, I had stopped using glass carboys with my beer brewing, because of a similar accident. The bee guy had given me an extra carboy when he delivered the honey, and I decided to use it.

Bad choice.

Mead takes a year from pitching the yeast to drinking the product, and I just suffered a two-month set-back.
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On the official prepping front, I'm reorganizing my preps to make them much more easily accessible. I've currently got most of my stores co-mingled. Rice with beans with sugar with pasta - all in the same tub. I'm putting like staples in the same tubs.

My only exception is our Bug Out Box. It holds food, water, shelter, etc., for 4 people for 11 days. It's the first thing grabbed if we have to get out quickly. Along those lines, I'm putting together a couple of 5-gallon buckets with enough food for one person for 30 days (see our 2010 post titled, "The One Bucket Per Month Challenge" [link] for ideas - be sure to read the comments for some awesome ways on how to accomplish this).
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Do me a favor: Get thee to the range.

I don't know if it's just happening in the SF Bay Area, but the lead stories for the past few weeks have had to do with shootings. Usually young folks.

PLEASE, practice with your weak-side hand. You're unnecessarily putting yourself in danger if you can only shoot well with your strong-side hand. Think about it: Bad guy enters your home. When you confront him, are you taking cover behind a left-hand or right-hand corner?

For instance, if you break into my house through the front or garage door, and I'm using a gun from my office, I'll be shooting you with my left hand, as the majority of my body will be behind a corner. If you come in through the sliding glass door in our backyard, you'll get shot with my right hand.

In the first instance, if I can only shoot with my right hand, I will have to expose my entire upper torso to you to get my gun around the corner. I'd rather do some range time and acquire new shooting skills than having my family attend my funeral.

(OK, nit pickers, I know that most walls don't actually provide cover, they provide concealment. Most self defense bullets will easily pass through the gypsum walls found in most American homes. Still, I'd rather that the bad guy is guessing where my vital organs are located rather than pointing them out to him.).
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I'm watching some male reporter on Fox Business jumping up and down in a bouncy house. With two adult women. THAT'S some hard-hitting investigative reporting there.

Reminds me of the old Man Show ending segment, Girls Jumping On Trampolines.

Crap like this makes it so much easier to turn them off after grabbing early market news.

They traded in the Judge for Bouncing Betty. We're doomed...

---Copyright 2012 Bison Risk Management Associates. All rights reserved. Please note that in addition to owning Bison Risk Management, Chief Instructor is also a partner in a precious metals business. You are encouraged to repost this information so long as it is credited to Bison Risk Management Associates. www.BisonRMA.com

Sunday, February 12, 2012

I was hob-nobbin' around some prepping sites, and ran into a few that had their various lists. "Must have" stuff for the serious prepper.

I'm a list guy - love 'em - as they help to keep you on track and focused. Most of the lists were heavy on canned goods. This is fine for in-home storage, but can be problematic for food you want with you while you're on the move. Especially if your back and legs are the primary means of transport.

I'll use my Get Home Bag (GHB) as an example. It is packed with food, water and equipment to sustain two people for 3 days. That means, at the bare minimum, it needs to hold 12,000 calories (two thousand calories times two people times three days). I want densely packed, light-weight foods. This leaves more room for water, fire, shelter and defense provisions in the bag.

Notice, I used the words, "sustain" and "bare minimum" as part of my description. We're not talking about "living large" here. The purpose of this bag is to get us home - probably by foot. We'd most likely burn more than the 2,000 calories each per day, but when we arrived home, we wouldn't be looking like refugees from Somalia.

For this purpose, Survival Bars are the best choice. The Mayday brand bars [link] run about $3 for a 2400 calorie bar, or $1.25 per 1000 calories. Personally, I've got the Millennium Energy Bars [link] which run about $10 for ten, 400 calorie bars, or $2.50 per 1000 calories. I prefer this more expensive alternative because they come in smaller individual sizes (easier to gauge the amount eaten) and each bar is a different flavor. The smaller size also makes it easier to use for barter or charity. Both brands have a 5-year life.

All of these bars have other benefits as well. They require no preparation - water, fuel, utensils - and they can be eaten while on-the-move. With both types of bars, they are manufactured to be "low water intake" nutrition - you don't need excessive amounts of water for your body to digest the nutrients.
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One step up - with regards to flavor, at least - are dehydrated and freeze dried foods. I keep somewhere in the range of 40,000 calories worth of these foods in my car as well. The idea for these foods is some sort of car breakdown in a remote area - mountains or desert. This would provide two people with food for another ten days or so.

These foods are light, but they're more bulky. And they can be VERY expensive per 1000 calories ($10-$11 in some cases). Shop around and do the math, as deals can sometimes be found.

The 'downside" is that you need to be able to heat water. This means the need for fuel (indigenous or brought with you), a way to make fire (you had better have that covered anyways!) and some sort of container in which to boil the water. We're not talking about putting together a Martha Stewart kitchen, but you'll need more than what's in your GHB.

For me, I have a box in my trunk with these, "Medium-Term Survival" foods and tools.

Accept The Challenge

When you're putting your various lists together, don't pigeon-hole yourself into thinking one product type will fit all of your needs. Take off the blinders and consider which foods are best for different situations.

If you're able to wait things out in your home - as most of us plan - those heavy, immobile, low-cost, easy-to-prepare foods are great. More bang for the buck.

But we need to assume we'll have to go mobile - the whole, "best laid plans go all to hell" deal. You DON'T want to be lugging around 3 cases of canned tuna fish on your back. Weight is a huge factor when thinking about mobility.

Water for two people weighs around 16 pounds for one day. It's heavy and bulky, but you've got to have it. Be sure to have filters (I use the Katadyn Hiker Pro) and lots of purification tablets so you can turn crap water into potable water.

---Copyright 2012 Bison Risk Management Associates. All rights reserved. Please note that in addition to owning Bison Risk Management, Chief Instructor is also a partner in a precious metals business. You are encouraged to repost this information so long as it is credited to Bison Risk Management Associates. www.BisonRMA.com

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Apparently, we whacko preppers aren't the only ones that think having gold and silver is a good idea. Twenty-five percent of our states seem to think it's a decent idea as well [link] -

A growing number of states are seeking shiny new currencies made of silver and gold.

Worried that the Federal Reserve and the U.S. dollar are on the brink of collapse, lawmakers from 13 states, including Minnesota, Tennessee, Iowa, South Carolina and Georgia, are seeking approval from their state governments to either issue their own alternative currency or explore it as an option. Just three years ago, only three states had similar proposals in place.
...

Unlike individual communities, which are allowed to create their own currency -- as long as it is easily distinguishable from U.S. dollars -- the Constitution bans states from printing their own paper money or issuing their own currency. But it allows the states to make "gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts."

Who'd a-thunk it? A belief that the Federal Reserve and the fractional banking system might fall down and go boom?

I wasn't really paying close attention 4 years ago (!), but didn't Obama run on a platform of inclusiveness, and solidarity, and equality and color-blindness?

I seem to remember - vaguely - hearing something along those lines.

So, imagine my surprise when I saw his re-election website is set up like a, "How To Balkanize America" instructional manual. It seems like EVERYBODY has got a special page or two as to why their race or "condition" got some sort of political kick-back since he was elected. They even include downloadable PDF files.

It seems like one, very large demographic has been excluded from the list of groups having their collective ass kissed by Barry. For the life of me, I can't seem to remember what that group might be.

I'm sure it will come to me by election time...
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Tip from a tobacco shop owner: If you buy a bag of cigarette tobacco to add to your stores - either for personal use or for barter - and it gets dry, he had a very easy way to re-hydrate it. Toss a lettuce leaf or orange rind into the bag and let it sit a while. The tobacco will absorb the moisture from the lettuce/orange peel and be good to go.

I've got one bag of tobacco that's well over a year old. My guess is it's pretty crunchy by now. I'll dig it out, and if it's all dried out, I'll give the lettuce idea a try.

Personally, it seems like with the orange peel, you'd get orange flavored smokes. I've got to figure that if orange smokes was a popular flavor, Phillip Morris would have produced them long ago...
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I caught the first two episodes of Doomsday Preppers via On Demand today. Not too bad. It only had a little feel of the "crazies" to it. Maybe prepping is moving main stream. OK, maybe that's a bit too much to ask for!

The most commonly cited reason for prepping was economic. They felt that hyper-inflation or some other economic event was going to bring everything down. I'd say the next highest reason had to do with some sort of natural event/disaster kickin' our teeth in.

This one lady that they called, "The Debbie Reynolds of Disaster" (or something like that) had a number of good ideas, but was horrifyingly naive in her belief she could, "tame the savage beast" if TSHTF.

Her plan was basically to sit down and chat with the starving, roving hoards, offer them a bit of food and they'd happily move along on their way. She ripped, "right wingers" for relying on stockpiled guns and ammo to keep the peace. She'd just chat them up, have a big ol' group hug, and things would be fine.

At least one of her followers thought that just MAYBE, things wouldn't work out as planned, and said that if things got out of hand, he'd slit their throats or poison them.

Here's a heads-up, sparky: To slit their throats or to poison them means that they're already inside of your perimeter. They're in your space.

If they're already there, you're not gonna get a chance to slit their throats. Chance are, you and your buddies are being passed around as party favors. Then they'll kill you.

I'd tweak that plan if I were you. Just a thought...
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Not a good sign: I'm seeing more and more folks coming into our PM shop to sell their stuff, "ala Argentina" - parts at a time.

When Argentina when teats up in 2001, people would go into shops such as ours and only sell enough of their precious metals to get a specific amount of money. For instance, if groceries today cost $100, they'd sell just enough gold to get $100. Many times, that meant if you had a heavy chain worth $200, you'd cut it in half and only sold what you needed.

In Argentina, the reason was hyper-inflation. If groceries were $100 this week, they'd be $125 next week. If you sold the whole necklace, you lost purchasing power. If you held on to the gold, the next week the other half of the necklace was now worth $125 and you could get the same amount of groceries as the week before.

THAT'S not what's happening (hyper-inflation). It's long-term joblessness. People are "parting out" their holdings - only selling what they need to pay bills for this month.

I had a guy yesterday that sold me one, 1oz Canadian Maple Leaf and two, 1/10 oz Maple Leafs. He said he's been out of work for over a year, no prospects yet. It's killing him, but he had bills to pay so he had to sell some of the coins he had purchased to give to his grandkids some day.

The depressing part was, he said he'd see me next month. He has no expectation or hope for a job by then.

I told him I was a half-step behind him a year ago - before the firearms training and the PM store had built up adequate capital to start taking draws. I was trying to give him some hope, but I don't know if I did.

Folks, PLEASE work to get multiple streams of income. Seriously. Nowadays, you must assume your primary source will go away for one of a million reasons.

Everyone has something they can do better, cheaper, smarter than all of the other folks out there. Figure out what that is, and start testing the waters while you've still got that primary income source.

One caveat: Start out, uhm, clandestinely. In most (if not all) states, if you lose your regular job but also own a business, you don't get unemployment insurance payments. It would suck to lose your primary income source and then come to find out you were ineligible for UI payments.

Be smart and aggressive. As the saying at the top of the page says, "AUDENTES FORTUNA JUVAT" - Fortune Favors The Bold.

---Copyright 2012 Bison Risk Management Associates. All rights reserved. Please note that in addition to owning Bison Risk Management, Chief Instructor is also a partner in a precious metals business. You are encouraged to repost this information so long as it is credited to Bison Risk Management Associates. www.BisonRMA.com

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Its focus is on how nation-states have this preoccupation with trying to "fix" things. The economy, the poor, other nations. They're then shocked - shocked I say - when things devolve into a catastrophic Black Swan event. They gasp in disbelief that things could have ended so badly.

As much as our governments would like us to believe otherwise, these big blow-ups rarely happen spontaneously -

Imagine someone who keeps adding sand to a sand pile without any visible consequence, until suddenly the entire pile crumbles. It would be foolish to blame the collapse on the last grain of sand rather than the structure of the pile, but that is what people do consistently,

There is so much truth and wisdom in that analogy - the idea that a catastrophic event is actually the culmination of a series of actions. That first grain of sand is just as responsible for the catastrophe as the last grain.

Our leaders and their Compliant Media Scribes have been floating the concept of, "The Black Swan" - the idea that catastrophic events are extremely improbable - and are almost impossible to predict. I think they're pre-staging the Excuse Phase for when the lid blows off. Sure, Black Swan's can occur, but that's not what we have going on here.

We have a government that is taking actions - domestically and internationally. Actions have consequences, and in general, you can see what's eventually going to happen.

The suggestion that we couldn't see this all of this coming is insulting. Black Swan, my ass.

In the US, we've got the Occupy pinheads going nuts over money they've never had. The government is essentially telling them they have a right to the money of other people - their fair share. Imagine how it's going to be when the Dependent Class in the US - already trained to trained to sit up and bark for their stipend - stops getting their regular government paychecks.

Is the Arab Spring going to be followed by the American Spring?

Look how entire governments around the world are going teats-up or are in major turmoil. Egypt, Libya, Syria - hell, most of the Middle East. Now we've got Russians in massive protest against Putin's repressive regime. Southern Europe is a basket case. Japan is on its last economic legs. China? They've been red-hot for a long time, based solely on external sales fueled by slave labor. Looks to me like a bubble getting ready to burst.

The common thread? Massive government intervention. Whether it be tyrannical dictators, government economic manipulations or all of the above, it NEVER ends well. Governments controlling people and their actions. When you try to suppress or manipulate people, systems or economies - to pacify, mollify or equalize - you are guaranteed to have negative effects. Guaranteed. Because to make someone a winner, you need to make someone else a loser.

And sooner or later, that additional burden being placed on someone else - that one additional grain of sand - brings the whole thing down.

I can already hear the protestations - "Who could have seen THAT coming?!"

Me.

And now you.

---Copyright 2012 Bison Risk Management Associates. All rights reserved. Please note that in addition to owning Bison Risk Management, Chief Instructor is also a partner in a precious metals business. You are encouraged to repost this information so long as it is credited to Bison Risk Management Associates. www.BisonRMA.com